At 2:48 PM -0500 2/3/09, George Allen wrote:
>I removed the dustcaps with my specially-made tool: old
>channel-locks with duct tape wrapped around the jaws. They came off
>without a scratch. I suppose the pedal bodies are die castings as
>there are parting lines (which rules out investment castings) and
>they are definitely not sand castings. Dies definitely wear out over
>time and are incredibly expensive to replace. However, worn dies
>probably are not responsible for the porosity in the castings. That
>is almost always caused by gas in the molten metal. Worn dies could
>explain the terrible surface finish as that would be consistent with
>die checking. Being in the manufacturing business myself, we deal
>with all sorts of castings and precision machining. I can assure you
>we would never let product like this leave our building. Bad
>bearings, terrible surface finish, porosity so severe there are
>voids in the castings and nonconforming threads speak to horrendous
>manufacturing and nonexistent quality control. There can be only one
>explanation: they were made by shallow, drunken rednecks more
>interested in pro football than quality manufacturing! ;-)
The history of French bicycle component makers is full of poor quality control, poor finish, which often obscures excellent design. Campagnolo may sometimes have questionable designs, but at least (almost) all of them were well-made and beautifully finished.
Mafac, Simplex and many others went under perhaps in part because they could not maintain an image of quality in the customer's mind. It inspires little confidence in a company when it lets products out the door that reflect poorly on its entire range.
Of course, the big makers like Shimano have moved their production off-shore to low-wage countries, and poor quality control seems to go hand-in-hand with that. I remember a Sram cassette on a brand-new Trek $ 2000 bike that skipped on one cog, a $ 80 Shimano pedal that started sticking after a few thousand miles, IRD freewheels that freewheeled in both directions and a few other gems. Still, at the price of a TA pedal, I would better quality control than that.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com